Times Change 3: The Cube of Summers Past
by 200trackrunner
Summary: An old project found in Phineas and Isabella's attic holds the memories of summers long gone. Now, given the chance to relive their past, they get the chance to truly see how far they've come. Disclaimer: I do not on Phineas and Ferb or any other real world product that my appear within this story. Rated T overall but may have occasional sexual content/ language. Read and Review!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Phineas and Isabella were in the attic of their Maple Lane house searching for suitcases. Years had passed since their marriage and the birth of their first child. Despite both making more than enough money to live wherever they wanted and in the biggest house money could buy, they both thought that the best thing to do would be to live where their journey had begun. But today was about preparing for vacation, and that meant searching through the deepest reaches of an abyss filled with medals, trophies, plaques, old projects, hand-me-downs, and things Perry would dig up in the yard and keep them from throwing out. As the couple made it to the deepest recesses of the storage, that just so happened to house the suitcases, they found an old infinite storage capsule that Phineas had made when they entered middle school. After blowing some dust off it, Isabella realized that this one was labeled "Summer Memories".

"Phineas," she questioned. "Do you know what this is?"

A struggling Phineas looked around the three giant suitcases he was currently balancing to see a metal cube in his wife's hand. "Old?"

"Funny. It's that cube of pictures and souvenirs from summers up until a little before we got married." Isabella's eyes became vacant from nostalgia. "Remember, you made it so that we would never forget 'summer: the greatest time of our lives'?"

Phineas set the bags down and made his way over to Isabella. "Clearly I had no clue what I was talking about calling it the greatest time of our lives. How could I have known what adventures would await us in adulthood." He said while pulling his wife into a quick kiss. He took the cube from her hand and pushed a red button on its side. An image of a tree house appeared and the sounds of the forest could be heard from the cube. "Hey that's the tree house before I had to renovate it into a multifamily vacation home!"

Isabella took the cube back from her husband and turned a dial next to the red button Phineas had pushed. The tree house flickered out of existence, giving way to their group of friends at a Phillies game with Mr. and Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher. "Wow Phineas, this is amazing! How could we have let this get away from us so easily? We should call up Ferb and Emily and relive some of the good old days. We could even show the kids what we were capable of!"

…..

Phineas and Isabella sat at the kitchen table across from Ferb and Emily, the cube situated right in the middle of them all. The men each had a Blue Moon and the women Twisted Teas. Emily stared transfixed on the cube, fascinated by what could lie inside.

"So," she began, her voice now more Americanized from living in the States for so long. "This has little pieces and flashbacks to summers as far back as when you were only in sixth grade."

"Right." Isabella answered.

"So Ferb, does this mean that I'm going to get all the dirty secrets of what you did with girlfriends past?" Emily only half teasingly asked.

"Yep." Despite being engaged for over a year, Ferb was no more talkative with his fiancé than he was with his brother, sister-in-law, or random stranger.

Emily was about to give a snappy remark when Phineas interrupted. "How about we just push the random button and see what comes out rather than use the cube to search through Ferb's old escapades?" And with that he pushed the red button and a small green play button on the device. Unfortunately the memory that came out wasn't exactly one he wanted his brother to see.

The memory started with the back off a barely clothed . . . make that not clothed woman running on the beach laughing. Because of the darkness of the scene and sound of waves crashing her voice was unidentifiable. The man who ran on screen next however was easily identified as a 21 year old Phineas Flynn. Knowing what was coming next, Isabella quickly hit the next button on the cube, a deep blush covering both the faces of her and her husband. Ferb and Emily laughed hysterically at what was almost a sex on the beech scene courtesy of Phineas and Isabella.

"Thank God we didn't let the kids see that! Imagine trying to explain that one to them." Isabella moaned in embarrassment.

"Try having your brother know that you've had sex on the beach . . . especially 'cause I've been lying about that during kings years."

Ferb took the cube from Phineas and Isabella. "How about," he chucked, "we start this at the beginning. Back in sixth grade when the only thing that mattered was fishing in the park, building projects in the backyard and roasting marshmallows by the fire with our friends and parents at night? Why not show Emily here just how crazy we could be as kids. Let's show her and your kids why the names Phineas and Ferb were known throughout the Tri-State Area before we were allowed to drive."

"Yea Ferb! I like the way you think." Phineas shouted in excitement.

**A/N: now that I've gotten back in the swing of things, I'm going back to writing. As much as I liked the second installment of the Times Change series, I have a feeling that this one is going to be a lot better. Reading the original made me realize that that was my masterpiece so far and I really want to top it. Read and Review! Complements or criticism, all are needed to make this the best story I can write and with months of summer ahead of me I don't think I'll be disappointing you like I did with Winter Reminiscing. **


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The cube in the air as it began to project the memory throughout the kitchen. Off white walls and tile floors were replaced by the deep woods of Danville National Park. The dripping of the faucet was replaced by the sounds of birds chirping and the churning and bubbling of a creek in the distance. The fluorescent lighting of the Flynn kitchen was replaced by seemingly natural sunlight and a warm summer's breeze swept through the room. Everything looked exactly as it had back in the summer between sixth and seventh grades.

"Phineas why are we here?" Isabella asked while looking up a tree. They were at the Fireside Girls' club house but by this time it had been out of use for a few years; swapped out for a more up to date one.

Phineas held a finger up to his lips and cupped his ear with his other hand. "I don't hear anything yet but…" He stopped midsentence when he realized that some fishing rods were perched against a tree. "I know where we are! We're at the rope swing on the oak that hangs out over the creek."

As he said this the scene came into view. The group was at the creek. Clear water flowed over a shallow rocky bottom. A hole towards the middle allowed the kids to be able to swing from the rope that hung from a limb on an oak tree. A young Ferb and Buford stood waist deep in the water, simply enjoying the escape from the hot summer sun. Balijeet stayed in the shade of the trees showing his disdain for swimming in fish filled water. Isabella laid atop the branch that the rope was tied too watching Phineas swing before jumping in herself.

"Ferb," Emily whispered to her mature fiancé. "Aren't you supposed to be doing something dazzling? Like inventing stuff or turning the rope into some high frequency mega ride."

"Nope." He simply smiled. "Sometimes even we needed a day to just take in the simple things."

"Yea," Phineas added. "This place isn't on any maps, not even today. But just watch, you'll get to see what we were like as kids."

"Ferb," the young Phineas said after spitting the creek water from his mouth. "This is your greatest idea yet! I thought we were gonna just take a lazy day when I heard that Paul the delivery man taken a day off, but swimming at our own private rope swing? You've outdone yourself."

Ferb answered with a calm thumbs up before his eyes widened. While he had been standing in a clearing in the trees that allowed for some sunlight to come through he had suddenly been overcome by shadow. He then realized that Buford was no longer standing next to him. The only word of warning of what was transpiring was Buford shouting "cannonball" as Ferb was consumed by the splash.

"Gotcha, Ferb. Hahahaha!" Buford laughed uncontrollably at his triumph over the boy genius.

"You know, Buford, that memory cube is recording this and one day I'll see it and you'll have to pay."

"Yea right. All your inventions disappear at the end of day anyway."

The present Ferb simply smiled. Poor naïve Buford would pay in the upcoming days and would have no clue why. Revenge, after all, is a dish best served cold. Looking on at the scene in front of him, he saw his younger self simply splashed Buford in return actually laughing loud enough for everyone to hear.

Isabella simply stared at her younger self. An evil grin crossed her lips as she stared at Phineas. The usual innocent shimmer that usually filled her eyes was replaced by a determined glare. She quietly inhaled a lung full of air and silently vanished into the depth. The younger version of her husband didn't seem to notice, too caught up with laughing at Buford and Ferb. He turned around and her absence dawned on him. "Hey where's Isab…." but it was too late. He was pulled under.

Isabella came up before her future husband laughing at her achievement. He came up gasping for air between laughs of his own.

"Got ya." She teased.

"Yea, you did. But I know your weakness." His face twisted into an evil smile at the words as he made his way over the girl in the pink bathing suit. Before she could react he was tickling her into a laughing fit.

"Stop it! Please stop!" she managed between laughs.

"Fine. But only because you asked." Phineas smirked again and disappeared momentarily under the water before resurfacing with Isabella in his arms.

"What are you doing?" A blush covered the young girl's face as Phineas held her in his arms.

"Hey," the present Phineas said to his wife. "Why are blushing?" All he got for an answer was a punch in the sholder. "Sheesh. A simple shut up would been just fine."

Back in the creek the younger Phineas carried Isabella over to where he was just able to stand and started lifting her over his head. "Throwing you," was his only answer before he lightly tossed her a few feet away from him.

As she came back up she proceeded to splash him in the face, her own being red from embarrassment. Unfortunately for her, Phineas only beamed at the splash, knowing he had won the war. It was then a new look hit Isabella's eye. Seeing this as an opportunity to make a move on Phineas, Isabella wrung out her hair as she walked up behind him. "So, Phineas," she whispered in his ear, as seductively as a sixth grader could possibly muster, "there's a little pool right around the bend where we could get some alone time."

"Yea! That's a great idea!"

This caught her off guard. Phineas finally returned her feelings this would be the day she asked him out on a date. They would finally walk down the street hand in hand and enjoy lightning bug lit nights together. But then a simple sentence ruined everything.

"I'll be right back with the fishing rods then Ferb. I could really use a break from swimming anyway."

As Phineas left the creek and disappeared on his way to the tree, Isabella could hardly contain her anger. He was almost fourteen for crying out loud! How long could it take a genius like him to realize something so simple? Deciding to appeal to the hopefully more adult part of Phineas, she opted not to use her towel to dry herself off, but rather as a place to sit. No man could resist the allure of a wet girl in a bikini. Or at least she hoped not.

When Phineas returned with the rods and a small container of worms for bait he gave a rod to Buford, Balijeet, and Ferb with only one remaining. Isabella's hopes of using fishing as a way to bond with Phineas seemed to have died out was well. In the years following the summer that started the tradition of make every day the best day ever, Phineas and the boys had become huge fans of fishing. All because Balijeet returned from a trip to India with stories of giant catfish that swallowed people whole. And this time was always spent as boy time. This time, however, something was different.

"Hey, Isabella," Phineas said to his somewhat dejected friend. "I was wondering if you would, I dunno if you would but want to share a rod with me?"

Isabella had been staring absently at the stone creek bed that they now stood on, not noticing the slight blush that crept over the young Phineas' cheeks. "Yea sounds like fun."

Phineas proceeded to start baiting the hook, going through the worm a few times to make sure that any bluegill wouldn't be able to steal the bait by just nibbling on an end. After casting his line into the middle of the creek and reeling it into the perfect place to get a strike, he took a seat behind Isabella and placed the rod in her hands.

Four bobbers slowly drifted down with the current until finally one started to dip rapidly up and down. Noticing it was his, Balijeet began to reel the line in. He started out slowly to allow the hook to slide into the proper location in the fish's mouth before giving a quick pull back to set the hook. "Haha! Looks like I'm the first one to catch a fish! That's five bucks Buford!" The small Indian boy cheered as he fought the small fish on the other end of his line. After about a short fifteen second fight, Balijeet held up a small rock bass that he promptly returned to the water.

At that point the forest and creek began to flicker and spin as if in a vortex to another dimension had begun to consume the scene. The cube began blinking until the memory disappeared back into it, and it finally turned off. And the room was silent.

"Phineas?" Isabella's voice was heavy with a questioning tone. "Was that you making a move on me?"

Phineas' answer was short and simple. "Yep."

"How could I have missed something like that?"

"It's ok Isabella," He said with a cool smirk. "Girls that age typically aren't into romance yet anyway."

"You're kidding me right?"

Sensing it was time to get the married couple off the subject of romance Emily decided to cut in. "How about we watch one with a little more memory in it? You know the kind with you guys inventing something spectacular that made you the most popular kids in the neighborhood?" Her attention turned to Ferb. "Can you look for one like that?"

Ferb looked up from the napkin he had been drawing on. It seemed to be covered with schematics for a device that so far only had the words "Buford Revenge Device" for a title so far. With a thumbs up as his only response, he grabbed the cube and began turning a dial, looking for the proper memory to play.

**A/N: hope this is satisfactory. This frame story set up is kind of difficult to write but I'm having a lot of fun with it. Read and review! And don't worry, Stereo Hearts request are on the way. I just wanted to get this chapter out first.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Ferb fired up the cube, setting the date to the day following their little adventure at the creek. However, the image the cube was displaying wasn't them at the beach constructing an artificial reef and submarines for subaquatic exploration. Instead they were seeing the inside of what looked like a high-tech spy base with miniature, platypus themed gadgets. The scene was so strange that none of them could speak, fearing that they'd miss some important detail. The cube was currently behind a chair and they couldn't see who was sitting in it, other than a fedora peeking over the top. In front of the chair was a teleprompter with the image of a graying military man on.

"Good morning Agent P." The man spoke up. "Doofenshmirtz has been signing out books on insurance policies from the Danville Library as well as the rights to a boat factory. He has also gained access to the Danville Dam through constantly nagging his brother to let him do something government related. This can only spell trouble. Get out there and stop him Agent P! Monogram out."

The head on the wall disappeared and the chair turned around to reveal a very familiar person, or, rather a very familiar platypus. Perry took off towards a platypus shaped jet car. The cube was swept up as his tail went by as it rode the upwelling to the top of Perry's fedora. Perry rode the car through a loft that appeared in the top of the Flynn-Fletcher tree and took off for downtown. He stayed roughly even with the roofs of neighborhood houses, only rising when he noticed that he was passing over Linda's car and made his way to the really tall purple building that dominated the Danville skyline.

As the words on top of the building became legible, an a cappella group sang out "Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!" At this Perry jumped out of his vehicle, lending on the balcony of the Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, doing a somersault into a large, dimly lit lab. A dark figure stood at its center. The figure was tall with an arched back with a triangular head. His hands clasped together maniacally. He stepped into the light, revealing himself to be dressed in a white lab coat with a black t-shirt and brown khaki pants on beneath it.

"Ah if it isn't Perry the Platypus." The man spoke in a thick Eastern European accent. "How shocking it is to see you. And by shocking I mean COMPLETELY NOT SHOCKING!" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a switch. He pushed the button on the device causing a giant ship in a bottle to surround Perry.

"I know, you're probably wondering: Doofenshmirtz, why would you trap me in a boat themed trap? Why are you talking in the third person? When will these rhetorical questions stop? Well it's very simple actually. And it can all be answered using a simple flash…. wait for it…. back." The man ranted as Perry looked on. "You see Perry the Platypus, it all started back in Gimmelshtump. My neighbors, a family of insurance agents, were lucky enough to have a boat in the days when I was stuck being the family lawn gnome. They would always ride around the lake and splash me with water and seaweed that they would put in buckets while they were out enjoying themselves. It made my life miserable. Even more miserable than simply standing outside dressed as a lawn gnome night and day. Because of this experience I harbored a deep hatred of both insurance agents and boats and today I will take my revenge on them ALL! WITH THIS: MY BOAT AWAY-INATOR!" He cackled while unveiling his newest creation. "I would explain how it works but it's really straight forward, ya know? I just turn a few knobs; hit a few buttons and BAM! Every boat in the Tri-State Area, gone!"

"Now Perry the Platypus, you're probably wondering how this will solve any of my problems but that is simple. First I will destroy all the boats in the Tri-State Area. With insurance companies needing to replace all of these boats at once, they will all go out of business. Then, using the boat factory I purchased with this month's entire alimony I will mass produce BO-ATs and sell them at a low price. Once I've cornered the market I will flood the streets by opening the Danville Dam, destroying everyone's cars and ground levels effectively putting all types of insurance companies out of business. I haven't quite worked out how this leads to me ruling the Tri-State Area, but hey, somethings are best left for when you get to that point."

With Doofenshmirtz finished his tirade, Perry picked up the ship that was next to him in the bottle and used it to break the glass. With the doctor's back turned Perry was able to land a surprise punch, spinning the man around enough to be met with a tail slap to the face. Doof tried to grab ahold of the monotreme, but Perry was too fast. With his grappling efforts failing, Doofenshmirtz resorted to throwing various objects from around the lab: wrenches, his neighbor's magazines, an old yet functional Desintavaporator just to name a few.

"Hold still Perry the Platypus. All I need is for you to leave me alone for just a minute so I can hit the button. Imagine this benefits you too being a semiaquatic OOF!" Doofenshmirtz began before a fist to the face cut him off.

Another slap across the face left the doctor blindly flailing his arms around as attempted to slap Perry away from his beautiful machine. Instead, it led to the self-destruct switch being flipped. The machine shook violently. The sounds of gears and screws popping out of their proper places filled the room before a small explosion engulfed Doofenshmirtz. When the smoke cleared, a charred Heinz was left staring blankly at what had once been his beautiful machine. He turned towards the escaping Perry, rage filling his eyes.

"Curse you Perry the Platypus!" His screams met only by the sounds of a hang glider opening in the breeze.

The cube began reabsorb the accidentally recorded memory, all in the room still speechless. Phineas and Isabella's mouths hung open as they gasped at what they had just seen. Ferb stared as usually, this time, though, the shocked filled his eyes. Emily seemed to be less surprised than the rest, but that was only because she had the least amount of experience with Perry. And, as she had come to learn, nothing involving Phineas and Ferb was impossible. Perry just sat on the counter, having watched the scene unfold, but now slightly too old to care that about what his owners had seen. He was recently released from field duty, and he and Doofenshmirtz and resorted to playing board games and friendly sparring matches to pass the time.

"Ferb," Phineas finally spoke up, "did we put a dream recording function on there?"

Ferb shook his head in response.

"So that means," Isabella said as everyone turned their attention to unfocused eyes of Perry. "That you were a secret agent?"

"Chatter," was their only response.

**A/N: now I know that this has taken awhile but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do for this chapter. I was gonna make Phineas and Isabella get into some sort of argument but then I realized that I had never written a Perry subplot. I've hinted at them happening but had never really done it so I figured I'd try my hand at it. Please review this chapter, I really want to know how I did. Does it compare well to other Perry plots on here? Should I do them more often? Or should I stick to what I've been doing? Thanks for reading. Sorry for the delay**


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